An east London gangster who tried to decapitate someone with a sword has died after drinking too much whiskey at a birthday party. Sabesan Sivaneswaran, 34, from East Ham, choked on his own vomit in Bengal Road on Sunday July 24, 2022, after drinking enough alcohol to put someone in a coma while celebrating a one-year-old’s birthday in a party in Ilford. Lane, an investigation has heard.
Mr Sivaneswaran was part of a Newham Samurai gang that attempted to murder a 23-year-old in Alperton, north London, in 2006. Armed with swords, pickaxe handles and pieces of wood, four of them attempted to decapitate the the victim. who only had a cricket bat to defend himself. His arm was amputated to the bone, leaving his hand dangling by the wrist.
The gang of seven known as “The East Ham Boys” was led by Senthurrajah Thavapalasingham, nicknamed “Psycho”, and had traveled across London to attack rival gang DMX, the Old Bailey heard at the time. In all, the group was jailed for 63 years, while Sivaneswaran was sentenced to life in prison for attempted murder and ordered to serve at least eight years.
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His imprisonment, along with the other caged thugs, saw criminal damage drop 80 per cent in the East Ham area, with reports of anti-social behavior also down 50 per cent. “East Ham is no longer a ‘crime and disorder’ hotspot,” police stated after the trial in 2008.
But 14 years later, Mr Sivaneswaran, of Caulfield Road, was found lying on the path outside a party, covered in nausea and unable to breathe. Moments earlier, a friend recalled how Mr Sivaneswaran had spilled curry on his shirt and was dancing, in a statement read to the East London Coroner’s Court.
They said, “I noticed that Sabesan couldn’t hold his food plate because he was drunk. He tried to drink the water but lost his balance and fell. After about 30 to 35 minutes I entered the party because something started. When he came back outside , the police were with him. I know he had been drinking whiskey at the party.”
Police officers patrolling the area found Mr. Sivaneswaran lying on Bengal Road with nausea on his face, shirt and on the floor at 12:06 am. The officers desperately tried to clear his airway by removing the vomit with their hands and a bandage. He was still breathing, but he fell unconscious at 00:21.
The London Ambulance Service arrived six minutes after the initial call was made. Paramedics took over police CPR as soon as they arrived, administering chest compressions, heart-stimulating medication and advanced life support. But, despite their efforts, they could not save him and he was pronounced dead at 1:30 am.
The court heard evidence of Mr. Sivaneswaran’s mental health problems and alcohol abuse which found that his liver was already damaged from drink. Coroner Nadia Persaud also ruled out third-party involvement after CCTV caught a verbal altercation between him and the driver of a car in the hours before his death. Coroner Persaud said: “I am satisfied that there was no evidence of foul play.”
“The evidence suggests that he choked on his own vomit,” he said. After reviewing the toxicology and pathology reports, the coroner concluded that Mr Sivaneswaran died from “aspiration of gastric contents” and “acute ethanol poisoning and alcohol-related fatty liver disease”.
In a statement to the court, his family said: “He came to this country when he was 10 years old and was always left alone. He played soccer for his school and his country. He always had a lovely smile.” But they revealed that he checked into a mental health hospital in 2017 and “did not make a good recovery.” When he returned home in 2020, he was assigned a social worker.
“The day he passed away and left his house, he spoke with his mother and said goodbye,” they added. “We were very shocked when she said goodbye. I didn’t know what issues she was facing with his mental illness.”
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